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Applied in 2008

Building Peace and Justice with Youth

Alternatives for Simple Living

Program Facts

  • Paid (FTE) Staff Working: 2
  • Program Participants Last Year: 200
  • Meets about 5 time(s) with each participant per month
  • Participants remain in the program for 12 months

Volunteers

Volunteers per month: 10

Volunteers are trained:

Volunteer Training
AlwaysRarely

Volunteers are actively recruited:

Volunteer Recruiting
AlwaysRarely

Board Activities

  • Formally reviews the performance of the chief executive officer at least once every two years.
  • Formally approves the budget.
  • Ensures that arrangements with outside fund raising firms are made in writing.
  • Receives information about the financial arrangements with such firms and, if applicable, the anticipated portion of the gross proceeds that goes to the organization.
  • Has formally approved a conflict of interest policy and regularly monitors it to ensure adherence.
  • Receives, at least quarterly, the organization's financial statement.
  • Receives, at least annually, an auditor's management letter and report.
  • Convenes an audit committee.

Outcomes & Measures: (self-reported)

Outcome 1
All youth will be personally aware of the reality of poverty before graduation from high school.

Measure
Attend high school graduation, lectures, and seminars and evaluate how many the program has served though one-on-one discussions, surveys, and mentor evaluations.

Outcome 2
That the homeless and truly needy are served by the program.

Measure
Quantify the numbers touched and served. This will be found through surveys, returning brothers and sisters, and one-on-one discussions with those touched (present and future meetings through continued contact).

Outcome 3
Speak and advertise the lessons, learning's, and overall concept of helping our neighbors near and far.

Measure
This will be measured though mailings (physical and electronic), returned surveys, comments, and overall impression made on character and values.

Outcome 4
Participants continual return to help those in need and continuing to grown personal goals and internal values.

Measure
Quantify returning volunteers through continuing contact and growth within and outside our organization.

Outcome 5
Continued participation in programs that serve the poor and constantly creating new and creative ways to help those in need along with the volunteers that create the backbone of our organization.

Measure
This is easily seen though growing contacts made though volunteer programs. The more we reach out to those needy, the more programs like ours will grow and diversely spread throughout our community, state, and eventually our entire unified world.

Change Process: (self-reported)

The most outstanding change that can be seen in the programs participants is the awareness of the interrelationships we all have to one another. Every brother and sister is connected in someway throughout this world of ours. It becomes more and more apparent through the changing times our globe is experiencing, that unification cannot just be a dream anymore, it must be an action. This program expresses the duty we all have to connect to our neighbors, environment, and its creator God. As one of Alternatives for Simple Living's volunteers Erik Hansen expresses daily, “We need to take as little as we can, and give as much back as possible.” These simple words have quickly spread as a saying through this program. Our participants continually are shown the difference in doing something plain for self-profit and doing something extraordinary for others. They also leave with the sense of the different rewards that come from each, the ladder being the most rewarding of all. These changes become apparent in daily life of the participants: some choose to clean out there closets for donations, while others are seen picking up trash on hiking trails and streets, but the most rewarding is to see the returning volunteers who show up with five, straightforward words: “What else can we do?!?”